Report: 2018 Big Ten Basketball Tournament To Be Held At Madison Square Garden
By Dan Jenkins
@DanTJenkins
The Big Ten Conference's migration east is not losing any steam.
SI.com's Pete Thamel reported Saturday that the conference's annual men's basketball tournament will be held at New York's Madison Square Garden in 2018.
"The move is part of Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany's push to position the conference better in vital East Coast media markets. Rutgers and Maryland are playing their first seasons in the Big Ten this year, and Delany has identified a presence on the I-95 corridor as a key to the league's future."
A formal announcement of the tournament's plans is scheduled for Tuesday. The tournament has been traditionally held at a rotating site since its inception in 1998, splitting time between Chicago's United Center and Indianapolis' Banker's Life Fieldhouse.
The 2017 tournament is scheduled to be played at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C.
Delany and rest of the Big Ten brass continue not to sugar-coat the fact that the league is looking toward the biggest of East Coast markets, whether it is for television or now the men's basketball tournament -- regardless of the fact that not a single Big Ten team plays in the state of New York...
